smells like teenage angst
by klausmikaelsex
Summary: AU where Daryl and Carol are teens that drive in shitty pick-up trucks, wear I LOVE NEW YORK shirts in the middle of nowhere, and get scraped knees. Daryl chain-smokes and they fall asleep on a scratchy, woollen blanket in the back of a car.


**smells like teenage angst **

A shadow appears at her window. The way his breath fogs up the glass. The way his hand is pressed up against it, fingers tapping softly against the windowpane. Her backpack is slung around her shoulder, she should leave with him now, but instead she stares at him for a moment. Carol takes in his appearance; the way his chest moves up and down as he breathes, dishevelled hair, tattered shirt peeking underneath his jacket. She loves his jacket – often has to stop herself from tracing the wings on the back with her fingers. He just looks so happy and peaceful and content. In this moment, he looks as though he has never felt heartache, sadness, stress. And she likes it when she gets to see him like this. She knows him – knows what he has to go through everyday – so this is one image of him that she wants to store in her mind forever.

She realises she's been gazing at him for far too long. Opening up the window, a waft of smoke enters her bedroom. She had never liked the smell of cigarettes, still doesn't really, but he happens to chain-smoke and it's a little thing she has come to crave – him smelling of smoke. He moves away from the window when she opens it, sliding across the branch. He gives her a quick nod before climbing back down the tree.

Her backpack lands onto the ground with a _thud_. She isn't as good as climbing down the tree, stumbles to find an even footing. He's stealthy and agile, a true hunter from birth. He's learned how to survive, how to _fight_, and he's _so much stronger_ than he believes he is. His hands are on her waist, steadying her as she reaches land, her boots scrunching against the leaves. She's rubbing dirt off her jeans when she hears him chuckle, "Nice shirt." She looks down at the 'I HEART NEW YORK' tee she had just thrown on and lets out a small laugh because, hey, they're living in the middle-of-fucking-nowhere and New York is somewhere she could only visit in her dreams.

He leads her over to his beat-up, shitty truck, and opens the door for her. He slides into the drivers seat, her breath catching as he smiles at her. Her heart starts to feel heavy, when all of a sudden, she realises she loves him. The realisation doesn't scare her as much as she thought it would, although if someone had told her a year ago that she was going to fall in love with Daryl Dixon, the town's resident bad boy, she would have scoffed at them and told them to get lost, because she was a good girl, and did her homework, and never stayed out past her bedtime and Daryl… well he was from a completely different world.

He turns on the engine (it took him a couple of tries to actually get the damn thing to start working), her eyes fixed on a hole in his jeans, right on the knee. She wonders how he got a scrape there. She thinks about how close they have become – how comfortable he is around her now. She feels a weight escape her body, leaving nothing but lightness in her chest and a giddy smile on her lips.

–

He stops at a convenience store to fill up the tank. He doesn't tell her where he's taking her, but she assumes it's out of town. They walk into the store and she pays for the gas, since she was the one who called him up at 2 in the morning to ask if he could take her out, because, well, she just wanted to escape for a little while. She walks through the aisles, her fingers skimming over the brightly coloured boxes of cereal. She finds him gulping down a carton of milk, raises an eyebrow when he turns towards her. He's smirking at her, until she notices his eyes flicker to someone behind her. Suddenly the milk is carelessly dropped onto the ground, and he's pulling her towards the exit.

They run to the car, looking back at the overweight shopkeeper trying to keep up. Luckily they make it without getting caught, the sound of their heavy breathing filling the car until they're laughing so hysterically that he has to actually stop and park onto the side of the road.

There's a comfortable silence for a while. She likes that about them. They don't need small talk. They have these little moments where they both just feel something. Carol doesn't know what that something is, but it's pretty intense. Just for a moment, it feels incredible. Just two people, two human beings, acknowledging one another. It's an unbelievable feeling. She rests her feet against the dashboard, sighing, "Mr Jenkins hates our guts."

Daryl sniggers before turning on the engine, "Naw, he jus' hates my guts. I'm the deadbeat that keeps fuckin' wit his store." She shakes her head slightly in disbelief, picking his hand up and giving it a light squeeze. She could immediately tell he was uncomfortable by the way his entire body had frozen in place, but he manages to slip her a quick smirk. She releases his hand and stares out the window; the last thing she remembers before falling asleep was him thoughtfully nodding in her direction before driving off.

–

"Carol," her eyes slowly flutter open, "We're here."

She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand a couple of times before following him out of the car. She has no idea where she is. She's about to call out for him, when she walks to the back of the truck to find him climbing into the back. She pauses for a moment, shrugs, and then jumps into the back with him. They sit in silence for a while, staring at the darkness ahead of them. He notices she's shivering, before pulling out a scratchy, woollen blanket, and draping it around them both.

He nudges her when she starts to drift off again, "Just wait," he murmurs, "Keep ya eyes open, 'cus ya don't want to miss it."

Suddenly, tiny hints of extravagant shades of pink and orange appear in the sky. The red envelopes everything and nothing is left unaffected. It's gorgeous. Her eyes burn as the colours blend, creating a multi-coloured sky. Red, orange, yellow, pink, blue… it takes her breath away. Her eyes flick over to him. He has a huge grin plastered across his face, the sunlight giving his eyes a lighter colour, it's bright and clear and is an interesting contrast to the dark, soulful pools of brown she's used to seeing. She likes how pure he seems right now. It's idyllic. This side of him comes with a vulnerability he only shares with her.

The wind starts to pick up, his hair flies into his face, covering his eyes. He wasn't quite prepared for it to be so windy. He pulls her closer towards him, her head resting on his shoulder. She pulls away from him and reaches a hand out to move some hair out of his face. It's unkempt and she has the desire to brush her fingers through it. When he looks back at her, a smile starts to grace his lips, and he decides to tell her how beautiful she looks right now. She blushes and opens her mouth to say something, but closes it, unable to form a sentence. She notes that her hair probably looks much the same as his, and she finds that she likes it.

Unexpectedly, he tilts his head and places his warm, chapped lips against hers. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that this was really happening. That Daryl was really kissing her. She responded quickly. Her hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him in even closer.

Eventually she slowly pulls her lips away, and places her forehead against his. She realises he is like the sun, brightening up her day. The smile on his face warms her heart, making her forget the beauty of the sunrise in front of them. The gentle kisses, the soft touches, those are what clouds her mind.

She realises she could stay in this moment forever and be perfectly content. Just as long as he was with her.

–

A/N This was just a quick thing I wrote at 2 in the morning. I just had a lot of caryl feels tbh. This is my first time writing for this ship, so I hope it wasn't too lame tbh. Haha. Please leave a review if you thought it was ok.

Thanks for reading!

Zayn :-)


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